


genius and a cheater

by personaeleven



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, competitive cuties, friendship fluff, obvs this is my ship but it's really not that shippy.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 20:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2163348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/personaeleven/pseuds/personaeleven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bellamy and Raven bond over Rubiks Cubes and their variants aka Raven is better at it than Bellamy and he won't admit it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	genius and a cheater

**Author's Note:**

> the idea came into my head and wouldn't go away so... yup. these two are hella cute why doesn't everyone ship them more /cries/

"What the hell is that?"

Good question, Miller. Raven stares at the plasticky, colourful cube in Clarke's hand, wondering the same thing. Finn steps out from behind her, grinning as he carries a box full of colourful things into the main tent.

"Rubiks cube. I read about it," Clarke holds it up. It seems to be made up of interlocking blocks. "It's a puzzle. Put all the pieces in the right place and all the colours should align. Figured we could use some... entertainment."

"Cool," Miller says, and Clarke tosses the cube to him.

"Have fun. You should try it, Raven. I bet you'd be good at it."

"It's a toy, Clarke."

And that it is. It fascinates the rest of camp for the rest of the day, and everyone takes turns to twist the cubes around, trying to solve it. From its haphazard state at dinner Raven assumes nobody has been successful.

"Miller, what the hell are you doing?" Bellamy breaks into the noisy circle of teenagers, scowling at his second-in-command. "You were up for guard duty five minutes ago."

"Sorry, Bellamy." Miller winces, standing to leave. He tosses the cube to the other boy. "You haven't tried it yet, right? If anyone can solve it you can. Or Raven," he casts a glance back at her as she finishes the meat on her stick. "But she doesn't want to try it."

Bellamy frowns at the toy, examining it. Raven wants to laugh at the discrepancy of Bellamy and such a colourful, cheerful thing, but she settles for smirking internally. He gives it a few twists. Raven settles down her elbows on the tree trunk and watches the cube in his fingers, slowly lining up into a cube with six faces of different colours.

It takes a while - four or five minutes? - but he finally gets it done, and the crowd cheers. Bellamy looks so self-satisfied she wants to punch him. Raven reaches over and plucks it out of his fingers, messing up the cube rapidly.

"What, you think you can do better, genius?"

Raven shrugs, then studies the cube. It's not that hard. 27 squares. 13 pieces in all, counting the one in the middle that doesn't move. She twists it so one layer is in position, then the second layer. The last one is trickier but she manages it faster than she expected. A cheer rises up from the crowd.

"Wow, go Raven! You did it way fast."

"She was watching me," Bellamy says, folding his arms, his smirk replaced by a frown. Raven rolls her eyes at him.

"Yeah, tell yourself that, soldier. Try and beat me, then."

He grabs the cube from her, looks at it, then messes it up to try again.

It becomes a thing. Bellamy beats her timing, and Raven tries it until she beats his, etc etc. Eventually they're both able to finish the cube under a minute - to the amazement of most of the campers, but honestly it's more formulaic than not - but Raven is just /slightly/ faster.

The next time she sees him he has something else in his hands, something that's also a cube but four by four instead.

"It was in the box Clarke and Finn brought back." Bellamy holds up the finished puzzle smugly. "I did it in three minutes."

"Don't you have work to do? Because I do." But she takes it from him anyway, putting it in her pocket. She tries it after she's done stripping the last wires from the old computer they'd found. It takes her four minutes, then three and half, and when she finally gets down to one hundred seconds she's spent two hours on the stupid thing.

She leaves it in his tent on a piece of paper with her timing, and a smiley face.

The next day there's another puzzle, not a cube this time but a three-dimensional pentagon, and a simple "140s" scrawled on one of the pieces of scrap paper they've found with some kind of charcoal.

"The two of you are taking this a bit far," Clarke muses when she sees Raven fiddling with it during break. Raven isn't really listening to her.

"Yes!" Two minutes. She grins at Clarke, who sighs and goes back into her tent. Raven heads to Bellamy's tent, makes sure there's nobody inside and slips in, leaving it on his desk.

"You're done already?" Bellamy enters, and looks over her shoulder to see the number. "How the -"

"Impressive, right? Just admit defeat, soldier. I'm better than you."

"Yeah right, I could beat that if I really tried. Unfortunately I have things to do," he says grumpily, walking out of the tent. Sore loser.

That night it's on her bed, together with a piece of paper that says 60s and a smiley face like her own. Asshole.

60 seconds?! Raven tries it again, and again, and again, but the closest she can get to is 85. Damn it.

Bellamy peers in, sees her standing in the corner of her tent staring at it frustratedly, and approaches her, his arms folded and his mouth curled.

"Did you beat it?"

"No." She's a little dumbfounded. She's always been _better_ at these things - it doesn't make sense. "Fine, you win this time. Whatever."

"What do I get?"

"What? Nothing. I didn't get anything when I won. Why should you get anything?"

"You didn't ask," Bellamy shrugs. There's a small, sly smile on his face that she doesn't like. "Don't be a sore loser, Raven."

"Fine, what do you want? I can take over your shift if you want, or-" He kisses her, deeply, and Raven finds herself kissing back reflexively. Muscle memory. Before she realises where they are and what context this is, and she pulls away. "Bellamy!"

He smirks at her, and Raven realises something.

"Did you even hit 60 seconds?! Or did you-"

"I might have. I don't know if I can replicate it, though."

"You cheater." She smacks him on the arm, hard enough to hurt. "I won."

"No, I won. You might be better than me," Bellamy says, rubbing his arm but still smirking. "But I won."

"By _cheating_."

"By being creative. Besides, you liked my prize too."

Raven aims a punch at him, which he ducks, and he ducks out of her tent too, laughing. Idiot. She'll get him back somehow, probably rewire his walkie so everyone hears him in a tinny high-pitched voice. She's been wanting to see if that's possible.

Idiot.


End file.
